


Etude, Op. 25 No. 12

by romangold



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Bickering, M/M, Random & Short, Stubborn Nerds, cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-26
Updated: 2015-12-26
Packaged: 2018-05-09 14:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5544134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romangold/pseuds/romangold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The climax always resolves to major, no matter how many times you play the piece. And the heroes always win, despite the amount of times you rewind to the beginning or fast-forward to the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Etude, Op. 25 No. 12

Maybe it was the rush of the sudden feeling of freedom, or maybe it was just that he didn’t care at the moment, but Hermann couldn’t feel a single pain in his body.

The water grumbled beneath him from where he sat, just a few feet above the ocean on some edge of the Shatterdome. He watched it gush blue and green and white as if he was hypnotized, so transfixed on everything and nothing.

“Do you think there’s any peace in there?”

The mathematician didn’t bother to look away from the water. “No,” he responded to the standing biologist. “No, I don’t believe there could be.”

“I mean now that the- that they’re gone.”

It seemed to be a difficult concept for Newt to grasp- that humans were alone, no kaiju. It made sense, considering all of the blacks and reds and oranges the man had fixed permanently on his body in likeness of the creatures. The monsters.

“I think it’s even less peaceful now that they’re gone,” Hermann said. “Who’s to say that there will be no more kaiju to tear a fissure in the aquatic creatures’ home and terrorize them once again? If animals have any emotion at all, it should be anxiety.”

There was a rush of noise from below as the waves battled before evening out, before more waves hit each other again. Over and over. And perhaps that was how humanity was destined to be- just a series of battles and violences with other beings, with each other.

“You’re a real bummer, you know that, Herms?”

The taller man furrowed his eyebrows. “Newton, there’s no point in saying everything that comes into your head out loud. It certainly doesn’t make you sound smart.”

No answer followed that. There was a rustle of clothing, and the sweater Hermann had loaned the biologist crumpled to lie next to the sitting man. It didn’t faze him; if Newton wanted to freeze, then-

Movement, and then next thing Hermann knew, he was watching Newt leap straight into the ocean.

Despite needing a cane to assist him in nearly all aspects of his daily routine, Hermann scrambled to his feet, shouting. “Newton! What- what-” He couldn’t see glasses glinting off of the weak sunlight or the dark head of unruly hair bobbing above the warring waves, so he panicked.

The wooden cane clattered on the surface the two had been standing on, and gangly limbs floundered in the air as Hermann threw himself into the water after the idiotic little man.

Hermann didn’t know why he expected the water to be anything other than freezing. It was as if he had jumped from the Titanic, straight ot his inevitable death.

He spluttered out the salty water, coughing and shivering as he struggled to stay afloat. Oh, his leg would be murder later. Or, perhaps, too soon. “Newton!” he shrieked. “Newton, don’t- where are you? Newton-”

Something slithered against his leg and the man thrashed, in complete fight-or-flight mode. He yelled again, trying to swim away, but what surfaced before him was not a kaiju or an electric eel.

“What are you doing?” Newt asked. “Why did you jump in?”

The mathematician wasn’t sure how to be angry as he searched for an explanation. “I- because- well, I thought-” he spluttered before crying out,“I thought you were trying to drown yourself, you insolent twat!”

And Newt had the audacity to laugh, right in front of him. “What? No, dude, I just thought it would be fun!”

“You thought it would be fun to swim in a freezing ocean filled with- with who-knows-what?” the taller man raged, his anger returning to him. “How is that any less suicidal?”

Newt shook his head. “Sometimes you just almost get things, Hermann.”

The mathematician didn’t know what he meant by that. Then again, he was talking to a man with more than half a dozen kaiju tattoos who had just flung himself into the ocean. “Oh, shut up so we can get out of here,” he griped. “Where’s the best place to swim to?”

There was a hand entwining with his own. “Come on.” Newt’s voice was much calmer than Hermann expected. “We can get back inside the quickest this way.”

And though he would never admit it, Hermann gripped Newt’s hand as if it were a lifeline, as if he planned on never letting go.

And he didn’t mean to.

**Author's Note:**

> [Chopin's Etude Op. 25 No. 12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IbCEF1XF9Q)


End file.
